LEWIS HAMILTON
“Obviously, I m not happy after a result like today s – but I m already getting over it and tomorrow will be another day.
Disappointingly, I didn t make a great start, but I slipstreamed Kimi and went up the inside. I braked a bit late – but so did everybody. A lot of cars went wide at Turn One – and I just went a bit wider than everyone else. But you can t undo the penalty or change today s result. On lap two, Felipe went wide and I went up the inside, giving him room, but he tapped me quite hard into a spin.
“There are positives to take from today; I ve only lost two points to Felipe in the drivers championship, so it s definitely not over. Now I ll forget today ever happened and move forward; we ve got two more races to go and my target is still to win both of them.”
HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
“Today started with so much promise and ended so disappointingly. I made a good start and, although I ran wide at the first corner, I still managed to slot in behind Robert and Fernando. I was feeling pretty confident about catching them both because the car was feeling just fantastic and then, all of a sudden, the engine stopped. That was a real pity because our reliability has been fantastic all season. Nevertheless, my pace today was good and I head to China feeling positive that we can once again show the same sort of pace we had this weekend.”
RON DENNIS
“Well, today was a very challenging day. We were a bit surprised that Lewis was given a penalty in respect of the first-corner incident, simply because we ve all seen similar first-corner incidents that triggered no such penalty. Drivers miss braking points, they run wide; these things happen. As for Heikki, he was in a very strong position, fuelled significantly longer than the cars around him, when he suffered an extremely rare engine failure. All in all, then, as far as the championship is concerned, I guess things could have been worse; but there s no getting away from the fact that it was a disappointing weekend. However, Lewis is still five points clear in the drivers championship, with two races to go, and I know that our whole team will dig deep from here on in.”
NORBERT HAUG
“A chaotic start and one lap later Felipe ruined Lewis s race when he first ran wide and then cut the chicane short and pushed Lewis into a spin. The next grand prix will be held already next weekend and neither Felipe nor Ferrari benefited too much from today s result. Despite Felipe s action, Lewis still leads the drivers championship. We will investigate the engine failure on Heikki s car tonight and tomorrow in Brixworth. Unfortunately this failure happened today when Heikki had a chance of winning; he was third, had the speed and was on the superior strategy. I am sorry for him and the team, it s bad that things like this happen even if you previously performed reliably for two years. But we will work hard to make sure that such a failure will not happen again.”
